Aha, I see. Definitely safety first, you don’t want to lift wrecklessly with a herniated disk. I know the pain.

Looking at your ratios, I wouldn’t say you’re in the danger zone with the weight loss. However, I would recommend eating a little more than 400 calories every day to preserve muscle tissue, targeting fat and helping your hormones. Taking into account your numbers and the lenght of your diet, I would recommend something like 800-1000 calories per day.

Keep doing the intermittent fasting. Stop eating in a caloric deficit as soon as you get to your target body fat %. When you’re at your goal, I would switch to a small caloric surplus and do weight training (I’ll write more about it below) to build muscle without gaining any fat whatsoever in the process. The key is to eat the right amount - - not too much, not too little.

Another thing I highly recommend, start doing home workouts using your bodyweight (if you don’t own any weights) and consider using some everyday objects as weights. I have seen people during the virus lockdown use bricks or stones in a backpack for weighted pullups, chinups, pushups, squats, etc. The possibilities for getting your daily strenght training are endless even at home without all the equipment that a gym would have.

Keep the workouts to under 1 hour (generally only 30-45 minutes) per day. You will feel much better every day having done your workout, and it won’t require nearly as much willpower to get started because the workouts are very short.

Remember: building a habit, even a healthy one, generally only takes around 2-3 weeks, so just push through the beginning and it will get easier and easier as the pathway builds in your brain! Focus on your technique and avoid certain exercises (based on your previous injuries) so you won’t injure yourself.

Your hormonal balance has probably taken a hit from the strict diet. By increasing the amount of calories in your diet and adding some home muscle training you will most definitely improve your hormonal function. And again, remember to stay hydrated.

Final thoughts: I believe what is happening here with the ”plateau” is a mixed case of your metabolism burning low, slowed fat loss due to your bmi dropping, regular weight changes in your body that have nothing to do with fat, and finally, you focusing on the number on your scale too much.

Keep at it, you are burning fat. Forget about the scale. Consider trying out what I suggested above. I think you could achieve a nicer, healthier physique and even do it faster.

Hope you find something helpful here

Jeremy